The Department of Justice is examining a bylaw proposed by Cork County Council which could have far-reaching implications for local housing authorities throughout the State.
The proposal seeks to establish that those in committed relationships should be entitled under local legislation to a place on the housing list, whether they are heterosexual or gay or lesbian couples living together.
It would also cover people with disabilities, senior citizens and their carers, and people who share a common residence. The by-law was proposed by Cllr Peter Kelly of the Progressive Democrats, who was elected to the council last year. He has won the broad support of his fellow councillors.
"Legal marriage is not an option for tens of thousands of Irish couples," said Cllr Kelly. "Should we continue to treat them as second-class citizens? This by-law is about equality. It is not about special rights for some, it's about equal rights for all."
If the council is told it can pass the proposed by-law with legal authority, it will mean that local authorities like Cork County Council will have to adopt new policies, offering a legislative framework and more legal protection to the sections of society about which he is concerned.
Are they not doing it already? Cllr Kelly, who is gay, doesn't think so. "Clearly not. People who have been carers for many years helping people in local authority housing have been thrown out when the named tenant has died because there is no framework in law to cater for this situation."
He adds that lesbian and gay couples and people who are heterosexual but unmarried appear not to have any place on the local authority housing lists.
"The policy seems to be that either you're married or you're not. Take, for example, the fact that, in the Cork County Council area, 40 per cent of the 3,000 people waiting for housing are listed as single. The reality is that many of these people are in relationships, but this fact is not recognised by the local authority," he said.
Cllr Kelly has been in the Progressive Democrats since the foundation of the party in 1986. He backed the dissident MEP, Pat Cox, then a party member, in the European election of 1994 and, for so doing, was asked to leave the party.
By 1996 he was back in the fold and, in the general election of the following year, was director of elections for the PDs in Cork South Central. In 1998 he tried for the seat left vacant by the death of Fine Gael's Hugh Coveney.
With Coveney's son, Simon, in the race, it was no contest, but, undeterred, Peter Kelly says he is there for the long haul.
His best guess is that it will be mid-April before Cork County Council hears if it has the right to overhaul existing policies. This would be a major battle to win. If he does so, we will all be hearing more from Peter Kelly.
Cllr Kelly has no problem about his sexuality and doesn't believe other people should have either. The gay scene in Cork, he says, has various meeting points, notably in The Other Place, a club in the Augustine Street area which is predominantly for gay men and women, but not exclusively so.
To exclude heterosexuals would be to discriminate, and that is exactly the issue which Cllr Kelly wants Cork County Council to address.